


Schrodingers Kat

by Anonymaustrap



Category: Champions Online
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 02:51:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20332843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymaustrap/pseuds/Anonymaustrap
Summary: The Day After Doomsday





	Schrodingers Kat

On screen, Doctor White and Doctor Black looked almost human -- a halloween cosplay couple, he a fedora-topped shadow wrapped in volumnius robes, and her in a snowy white wrap, her platinum hair mostly captured in a quick ponytail. Their expressions were surprisingly patient considering it was midnight in Stuttgart. Dr. White even managed a little wave in Katrina’s direction as Major Clay paced back and forth in front of the monitor.

“Doctors, thank you for responding on such short notice, but I have a situation here. Lieutenant Mirinova --”

“Oh, hey Kat!” Doctor Black said. 

Kat restricted herself to a smile and a nod, remaining at ease. Leave it to Doctor Black to use a cheery greeting to break protocol. Reassuring in its predictability.

“As I was  _ saying,”  _ Major Clay continued. “A situation. And I know you are both very involved hunting down Eurostar, but two weeks ago, Lieutenant Mirinova went on leave.”

“The devil you say!” Doctor Black said, and grunted with a nudge from Dr. White. 

“During that time, she had an extended audience with the Drifter.”

“We are aware,” The Doctors said as one. The playful couple who seemed frivolous seconds ago in a moment vanished, replaced with enigmatic sorcerers whose sudden synchronicity sent a chill through the room even across the video call. 

“The Lieutenant here says she’s not the same Katrina that left, and comes from a different, well different  _ here _ \-- that she’s actually a sergeant assigned to UNITY. The thing is, I distinctly remember signing her promotion papers and assigning her to Blood Oathed, Honor Bound.”

The Doctors exchanged a quick glance. “And?”

Katrina fought not to roll her eyes. She’d already discarded the idea Doctors being amazed, but she’d expected at least a “Hmm.” But no. 

“ _ And _ ,” Major Clay said, “I’m trying to determine what to do about this. Is this the Lieutenant Mirinova that left with the Drifter, or some imposter?”

“She has walked with Drifter,” Doctor Black said, throwing his arms wide. “No mortal may walk his dusty steps and not be transformed. Of course she is not the same!”

Katrina closed her eyes as Major Clay pinched the bridge of his nose.

Doctor White laid her hand on Doctor Black’s shoulder as she addressed the camera. “We saw this Katrina Mirinova on the road with Drifter. She is Katrina Mirinova -- changed, yes, but as trustworthy as the one who left. Still the nature of these changes--”

“You saw her last week in a vision and didn’t report it?” Major Clay asked.

“Oh no,” Doctor White said with a smile and a shake of her head. Her answer was joined by Doctor Black. “We saw her three years ago, when she first came to headquarters. She had changed but she was alright. I’m sure the report is  _ somewhere. _ What? I thought  _ you  _ filed it.”

“So you did see me that day,” Katrina said, “Why didn’t you say anything”

“Spoilers,” The Doctors said with gravity.

“Meridian said the world had been destroyed and things got a little shifted when it was put back together,” Katrina said, which earned a shocked look from Major Clay. 

“Oh, that’s interesting,” The Doctors said. Katrina allowed herself a smiles at their reaction.

The Doctor’s gaze bounced between Katrina and the seething Major Clay. Doctor White finally said, “At least it was put back together at all. Good for them.”

“Lieutenant,” Major Clay says, his mustache teetering in consternation, “Would you excuse us?”

Outside the office, Doctor Black lounged on the bench across the hall. His wide hat covered most of his face, but she could see a finger across his smirk that told Katrina to be silent as she perched on the other side of the bench. A pair of passing techs greeted her with nods and smiles, oblivious to Doctor Black.

“How are you--” Katrina began after the techs had passed.

“A shade. It’ll help Major Clay’s blood pressure if Judy does the talking. He leaned toward her, and for a moment it was like he was actually there. But the air was still as he moved, and his scent was absent. He seemed amused as she worked through the details. “So, what did Kat see on the road?”

Everything un-made, Katrina thought. Apocalypse without rebirth. “Dreams. Nightmares. I wish there’d been another way.”

“We’re sorry there wasn’t, Lieutenant Mirinova.”

“Lieutenant. I’m not sure I’m ready for that rank. Why didn’t Drifter tell me about  _ this _ ?”

“I’m sure he did, in his own way. Besides, he’s probably seen the universe reboot so many times, it's just another day on the trail. You must have sensed that about him.”

“The power? The mystery?”

“The sadness.”

A moment returned -- the cemetery and Drifter waiting alone at the entrance in the rain, singular under the glow of the streetlamp. Katriana nodded. “He did say something. He asked me if a desert was the same desert after a sandstorm. At first I said no, it wasn’t the same, but now, I realize he wasn’t saying the same, but  _ the same desert. _ ”

“Is it?” Doctor Black asked.

“I guess it depends on what you mean by desert. And by storm.”

“The mountain and the ant never see the same storm.”

“Or the same desert. But tell me -- a week ago, Lieutenant Mirinova from this world and Sergeant Mirinova -- me -- left with the Drifter.” She looked to Doctor Black and proceeded after his nod. “So, if I’m here, what happened to that Lieutenant Mirinova?”

“Schrödinger takes the cat, and puts it in the box. He closes the lid. Until the lid is opened, there are an infinite number of cats with an infinite number of fates. He opens the lid, and one cat remains. Fate and cat are bound.” 

“So for the cat, there are an infinite number of worlds outside?” Katrina asked, looking askance at Doctor Black.

“If the cat is smart, yes.”

“Is it random?”

“Few things are. The cat and the universe find each otehr,” Doctor Black said, and only smiled at her as she demanded more with her silence.

Finally she sighed. “I wish -- I wish I’d have come back in a world he was still alive.” She’d already seen the grave, the stone fresh cut, the grass neatly trimmed.

“I am very sorry you did not. But love and grief are two of the three anchors for a wandering spirit.

“The third being--”

“Revenge.” Doctor Black said with a nod.

“Of course.”

“We hope you’re happy with the world your box has opened to, Kat,” Doctor Black said gently. “As we are that you were the Kat in the box. We saw you on the road the same day you arrived from PRIMUS. We saw you were not the Kat that reported for duty. We saw you were not the Kat that we were leading around -- that you were a different Kat. This Kat had seen time -- been time. This Kat was on the road with Drifter, which meant her path had not been an easy one, but that you were where you needed to be.”

“Where I am now, vs. where I was then?”

Doctor Black shrugged. “You were very much Pyrrhic Victory when you came to UNTIL. Back then, you couldn’t have shot it out of your head like you did in Asgard. Back then, It was coiled all through you, like -- like it  _ was you. _ Judy and I knew there were risks in dealing with you as we did, and we doubted, but then we talked to Drifter--”

Katrina sat up in disbelief. “You asked Drifter about the current me that you saw three years ago?” Katrina felt herself trip over the rest of the question at Doctor Black’s nod. “But it hadn’t happened yet, how could -- Oh. Because Drifter.”

“Because Drifter,” Doctor Black said with a cheshire grin and a shrug.

Katrina felt a smile creep to her lips. This world wasn’t so different. “So he baffles you two, as well, huh?”

“Occasionally. Almost as much as we baffle him.”

Katrina tried to imagine the Drifter baffled, and then tried to picture what puzzles an eons old mystic. For a moment, she saw beyond Doctor Black’s Onyx hair, black eyes and enigmatic smile. Beyond that was Doctor White, her  _ presence _ interwoven with Doctor Blacks, and in hers, his.

Of course, she realized. He was alone and the Doctors were together and those ways of being were part of their power. She pictured them regarding each other across a vast gulf, each examining the curiosity of the other; trying to understand and then accepting the unknowable in the other. Katrina shook her head. Mystics.

“What will you do, Lieutenant?” Doctor Black asked.

“That’s up to Major Clay.”

“Never doubt Dr. Whites powers of persuasion,” he said, waggling his fingers.

“I impersonated a Lieutenant.”

“You were promoted.”

“I didn’t know at the time, and didn’t mention anything about being shifted for over a week.”

“Because?”

“Because I didn’t know whether I had lost my mind, or PSI had somehow taken over, or Dr. Destroyer had some sort of mind control, or Shadow Destroyer as a spell -- I had to go along with the charade until I could figure out that it wasn’t a charade.”

“How lucky that Meridian found you when you broke in to BOHB HQ.”

“The keycard was mine!”

“You didn’t know that, so you can add breaking and entering to impersonating an officer. At least mystics like Meridian deal well with the --”

“Sanity challenging?”

“I was going to say absurd,” 

“But you have said that to me, right? That some knowledge--”

“Yes.”

“About me.”

“About you.”


End file.
